God Loves Me

Doorknob Evangelism & Calling on the Name of the Lord

God loves me.

I know this because a flyer attached to my front doorknob tells me so.

While reading the flyer to learn more about God’s love, I was saddened to discover that “God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).

It was my fault that Jesus died. Not because I am a Jew and we Jews killed Jesus, which we didn’t, but because I am human and, according to the flyer, “there is not a just person on earth, that doeth good and sinneth not” (Ecclesiastes 7:20).

Simply put: It is because we humans sinneth that God commendeth Jesus to dieth.

I’m supposed to feel bad about this, but the more I think about it, all I feel is anger. I understand being so angry at your kid that you might want to kill them, but it would never occur to me to kill my son because I was upset about what other people were doing. I’d kill them, not him. Jesus died not because of my sin but because of God’s misplaced anger. This is straight out of the DSM IV. God was angry with humans—again. Instead of wiping us out, as in the Flood story, he redirected his hostility toward an innocent target: Jesus. God is revisiting the story of Abraham’s near-sacrifice of Isaac, but this time he’s not going to back down. If you want something done right… Or am I misunderstanding the flyer?

I pondered this question as my Goldendoodle, Sofiyah, and I strolled around the block. As I looked up from scooping her poop, I noticed two young women placing these flyers on doorknobs in my neighborhood. When we passed each other on the sidewalk, they stopped and handed me a flyer. I explained that I already had one, had read it, and had a question—the same one I just shared with you a moment ago. They were only too happy to answer it.

“See,” one of them said, pointing to a paragraph in the flyer, “it says right here that everyone is guilty of sin and only God is perfect. Humans can’t be perfect.”

“Then why does Jesus command us to ‘Be perfect as your Father in Heaven is perfect’ (Matthew 5:48)?” I asked.

“It’s aspirational,” the woman said.

“Yes, it’s aspirational,” her partner repeated.

“But if I can’t be perfect and reach this goal, then God is setting me up for failure.”

“And for Hell,” one of them said, a bit too excitedly. “It says right here,” again pointing to the flyer, “that because of your sin, you are ‘deserving of eternal punishment in a place the Bible calls Hell.’”

“That’s right,” her companion said, “Revelation 20:14. Hell and the lake of fire. Don’t forget the lake of fire!”

“God’s love seems quite unloving,” I said. “In fact, it makes me despair.”

“Yes!!” they said together, smiling.

“And because you despair of ever escaping Hell, you must accept God’s gift of Jesus’ death and resurrection,” one of them said.

“Listen to this,” the other said, reading from the flyer. “‘Each person must now decide whether to believe God’s Word. Many will trust in living a better life, being a good person, or doing good deeds to get to heaven. God’s Word emphatically says, ‘Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith [believing] without the deeds of the law’ (Romans 3:28). Our only way to heaven is by believing in Jesus Christ.’”

“What about James 2:17, ‘Faith without works is dead’?” I said. “Besides, I’m a Jew like Jesus and James: for us, works are more important than faith.”

“Look,” the taller of the two young women said, “all that matters is the question at the end of the flyer: ‘Do you agree with what God says in His Word about your sin, the punishment you deserve, and Jesus’ death for sins?”

“No.”

“But look,” the other said, desperate to help me avoid Hell. And the lake of fire; don’t forget the lake of fire. “It says here that all you have to do is ‘Call upon the Name of the Lord’ (Romans 10:13).”

“Call upon the Name of God? That’s it? That’s all I need to do?”

“Can you do that?”

“Sure!” I said with a little too much sincerity, wanting to make them happy, and hoping they get some kind of Lake of Fire badge for getting me to say this.

“God bless you!” they said, smiling and in unison as they waved and turned back to their doorknob evangelizing. “You have nothing to worry about!”

“Maybe,” I said to Sofiyah as we turned back to our walk, “but I doubt it.” Still, I gave it a shot just to be safe: Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare, Hare.